Freezing rain closes schools and highways, leaves 14,000 without power | CBC News

Schools and multiple sections of highways are closed Monday after New Brunswickers all over the province woke up to freezing rain warnings.

Environment Canada is warning of ice coating the roads and other outside surfaces after overnight freezing rain.

The freezing rain is expected to continue Monday into Tuesday morning in all parts of the province except along the Fundy coast, the weather advisory says.

All school districts are closed because of the weather. All NBCC campuses but Moncton will be closed all of Monday, as well as Sussex Christian School.

Almost 15,000 N.B.Power customers, mostly in the Moncton and Shediac areas, are without power.

Some areas are expected to get power back before noon, according to N.B. Power’s estimates. But others, like Moncton, Dieppe, Shediac and Cap-Pelé, are expected to get power back between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m.

N.B. Power spokesperson Marc Belliveau said restoration times depend on the amount of work required and the location of the outage.

At Bayfield, near Port Elgin, for example, a broken pole in deep woods requires special all-terrain equipment. About 480 people are affected by that outage.

“In some cases, a repair on a transmission line can restore power to thousands of customers in one fix. That’s the case on work being carried out right now on a transmission outage in the Turtle Creek area near Moncton,” Belliveau said.

Vitalité clinic closures

Vitalité Health Network said all of its clinics in northwest New Brunswick and in the Bathurst area and on the Acadian Peninsula are closed.

The Haut-Madawaska Medical Clinic will be closed all day. Community Mental Health Centres and Public Health in Caraquet, Shippigan and Tracadie will be closed until 1 p.m. A decision whether to open in the afternoon will be announced in late morning, the health authority said.

Horizon Health Network lists no closures.

Significant ice build-up because of the freezing rain is expected or already happening.

The Saint John area and Fundy National Park are the only locations excluded from the freezing rain warnings. Those areas, as well as Moncton and southeastern New Brunswick are under a rainfall warning, with 20 to 30 millimetres of rain expected.

Moncton, Grand Manan and Kent County are under rainfall warnings as well as freezing rain warnings.

According to road condition advisories, sections of some highways are impassable. New Brunswick 511 listed 20 highway closures as of noon Monday. There are also several accidents reported causing further highway delays 

Driving conditions on much of the Trans-Canada Highway were extremely poor, said RCMP, but improved enough for the advisory to be lifted as of 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Environment Canada is forecasting a prolonged period of ice pellets and freezing rain Monday morning and into this evening. 

“Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots will become icy, slippery and extremely hazardous,” the weather advisory says. “Beware of branches or electrical wires that could break under the weight of ice.”